


MY DINNER WITH ANDRE Presents ‘We’re Stuck, Wally’ (deleted scene)

by Nikkee_Crypt



Category: My Dinner with Andre
Genre: Hegel, Lacan, Peter Pan - Freeform, Philosophy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 18:58:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19729807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikkee_Crypt/pseuds/Nikkee_Crypt
Summary: MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981) is a film about two old friends talking over dinner. Their talking topics are philosophical and range from the art of living to conspiracy. The following is an imaginary “deleted scene” from an imagined version of the film that is set in the present.Andre compares western culture to a stunted adolescent, calling it one big example of Collective Peter Pan Syndrome. Formatted (basically) like a screenplay. Enjoy!N. Crypt.





	MY DINNER WITH ANDRE Presents ‘We’re Stuck, Wally’ (deleted scene)

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE Presents ‘We’re Stuck, Wally’ (deleted scene) 

By Nikkee Crypt. 

EVENING in a high-priced New York restaurant. 

Members of “polite” society are grouped at various tables around the place. The faint sound of chit-chat and of ambient classical music is heard. The walls are mirrored and the waiting staff are attentive but unenthusiastic. 

Andre and Wally sit at a table in a corner. The two old friends sip cold beverages as they wait for their second course of food. 

WALLY V.O. 

I was beginning to relax a little now. My anxieties about my dinner with Andre seem to have been unfounded. And despite not having seen Andre in several years, it was like nothing had changed. Of course, in many ways, a lot had changed... 

ANDRE 

(continuing a chat that we the audience have only just entered) ...Of course, it reminded me of Peter Pan. And Wendy. Do you know that the character Wendy is described as having mourned her lost youth, while at the age of two? 

WALLY 

Really? 

ANDRE 

Astonishing, isn’t it? Even before this little girl’s personality has become predictable, she’s aware of some end in sight. It’s almost like her awareness of routine and of predictability and of stability, is what causes her to... to lose something. To lose that spark of potential. 

WALLY 

I think it was Lacan, who said that a child must enter a type of mirror stage. You know, when you’re small, you don’t see yourself as some kind of fixed, physical entity. You’re an infinite consciousness. You just exist, you are, with everything. And then one day your mother or father is holding you in front of a mirror, and they say “Look. Who’s that?” And, of course, they’re talking about you. Suddenly the infinite entity is fixed. It’s a person in a world of other persons. The infinite potential – starts to die. 

ANDRE 

And don’t you think, Wally, that such truths are hard to bear? At any age? Every time we make a choice, we remove other choices. And that is precisely my point about the spirit of western culture today. 

WALLY 

You think we’re all afraid of change? 

ANDRE 

I think we’re afraid of growth. A man can change but not grow, isn’t that right? So they’re two different things. Real growth – towards something good – requires bravery. Otherwise what is the result? A collective version of the Peter Pan Syndrome; stunted adolescence. 

Wally pauses to ponder, sipping his drink at the same time. 

ANDRE (cont.) 

And so take western culture. What does it like? It certainly likes pornography. And high-octane, action motion pictures. Superheroes are more popular than ever. These are the preferences of a youthful mind. And say something that challenges a person’s views and they really don’t like it. They rebel, they make an enemy of the other person. We’re addicted to posting pictures of ourselves for some kind of validation. This narcissism is classic adolescent behaviour. We live in a world of ideas that we’ve built and inherited, but we’re too scared to move on. We’re comfortable. Anything goes, yet nothing really does. Crystalized potential, Wally. Western culture is like your teenage niece or nephew, who got to 35 and was still a teenager, mentally. Not in the fun, wonderful way, but in a way that’s detrimental. He or she is stuck. And that’s what western culture is today, Wally – the so-called mature, reasonable grown-up is actually a stunted adolescent... 

WALLY 

I think I understand, Andre, but... I don’t know if I agree. I mean, why should western culture be headed towards some higher or better place? I’m not saying we’re not in some kind of crisis of meaning. I just, am not convinced that culture really does mirror the growth of the individual in the way that you describe. Maybe western culture reached its maturation point a hundred years ago or twenty-five hundred years ago. And maybe once that happened, there was nowhere left to go because we figured out our own limitations. You know what I mean? 

ANDRE 

I do. But without constant movement, without growth, we reach a point of stasis, do we not? And when a thing stops pulsing, either it’s frozen or it’s dead. And if it’s dead but wasn’t ready to die, it lingers on as a ghost. A spirit. I suggest to you, Wally, that the world is right here, moving around, but only as a spectre of its former self. That’s why we always find ourselves looking backwards; a better time, “when hamburgers were hamburgers” (lightly laughs). The death knell for humanity rang a very long time ago, like a mother calling her child home at the end of the day. Humanity’s response was to almost admit defeat, but not entirely, saying to ourselves and our mother: “Just five more minutes. I’ll be right there.” 

Nikkee Crypt


End file.
